JAMES CONEY: The way to stay one step ahead of online crooks? Make sure you protect your personal information

Lucrative: Internet fraud is a crime carried out by twenty-somethings on those aged 50-plus

Every two minutes, someone in the UK becomes the victim of bank fraud — with most cases happening online. And this is just reported crimes. The true number of attacks on our accounts is far greater.

Rogue computer programmes, fake emails and scam websites are now so prevalent that regular internet users barely bat an eyelid when they come across one.

For the most part these cons fail, which is largely due to the small fortune that banks and technology firms spend in making sure the details held on their systems are protected.

The fact that eBay — a sophisticated computer firm that employs some of the brainiest computer geeks in the world — can be the victim of hackers shows how sophisticated these crooks are.

So what chance do our accounts stand, with our passwords that use the name of our pet spaniel or favourite football team?

Internet fraud is a crime carried out by twenty-somethings on those aged 50-plus. It’s anonymous and lucrative, and the punishments if you’re caught are relatively slight.

In one recent case, a hacker who stole more than £1 million from bank accounts got five years.

Compare that with robbing a bank, where criminals get double that sentence. (I can’t help thinking that’s why there were just 89 bank robberies in the UK last year, but 847 in 1992.)

Your personal data, including your credit card details, are a lot easier to come by than a sawn-off shot gun. And on the dark web — an illicit, unmonitored part of the internet — this sensitive information is on sale for around £12.

You don’t need a getaway driver or balaclava to commit an online bank raid. You just need a room and a computer hooked up to the internet — and what young criminal doesn’t have that?

The banks are doing their bit; but you need to do yours, too. Even if these criminals have your bank details, they often can’t steal your money unless they have some more information about you.

But these days, of course, that’s all to be found on the web, on Twitter and Facebook. You wouldn’t leave information about your Pin code with your credit card, so don’t leave clues to your bank details on the internet.

Online crime is a very real and constant threat. You’ll never know as much about the web as these tech-savvy crooks — but you can stay one step ahead of them by protecting your personal information.

Oh, Santander!

I have had a Damascene conversion! Sometime in the past few days, I came to the conclusion that the time had come to open a Santander 123 current account.

Now that may not sound particularly revelatory, given it’s one of the best deals out there. But regular readers might appreciate what a significant moment this is.

For years, our Money Mail postbag has been filled with complaints about the shocking service at Santander. Trivial problems could be turned into an unwieldy, complex mess at the hands of its staff.

I can’t tell you how many heads of customer service I’ve met over the years. Invariably, they’ve trotted out the same pie-eyed promises that things would get better — but within months they’d moved on.

Even 12 months ago, I’d rather have trusted the contents of my wallet to my four-year-old than let Santander look after my money.

But a radical transformation has seen service levels improve dramatically, and its 123 account has proved a wild hit.

I realised bloody-mindedness was getting in the way of financial common sense. And that just won’t do. So I resolved to open an account for some payments but keep my main account elsewhere.

Within seconds of applying I got an email saying my application had been received. Then, almost instantly, another one landed: my application had been refused. Well, how about that for a slap in the chops!

Santander gave no reason in the email. It’s not a credit check because they’ve given me a mortgage.

I assumed it was because I told them I didn’t want to make this my main account.

Not so, say their press office. They explained it was a one-off IT error and opened my account.

So I’m back where I started — lacking confidence in Santander’s ability not to make mistakes. Only from now on, they’re supposed to be looking after my cash.

Unlocked rage

Last week, I wrote about how customs officials broke the padlocks on my suitcase to search it while on a flight from the U.S.

I said I now planned to buy approved locks that officials can open then reattach to your bag.

It seems that even when so-called ‘Search Alert’ locks are fitted, all that happens is customs officers remove them easily — and then fail to put them back on properly, or the locks disappear altogether.

So rather than pay a tenner a time, I think I’ll stick to my cheap ones from Wilkinson’s where you can get four for the same price.